Elder v. Incorporators of Central City
| Decision Date | 27 March 1895 |
| Court | West Virginia Supreme Court |
| Parties | Elder et al. v. Incorporators of Central City. |
Incorporation of Municipalities Constitutional Law.
Chapter 47 of the Code, in relation to the incorporation of cities, towns, and villages, in so far as it confers on the circuit court functions in their nature judicial and administrative, although in furtherance of the power of the legislative department of the state government, is constitutional and valid.
C S. Welch and Simms & Enslow for plaintiff in error, cited 29 Mich. 451; 32 Minn. 540; Cooley Con. Lim. p. 137; Locke on Civil Government 142; 43 Iowa 252; 28 W. Va. 289; 36 N. W. Eep. 813; 11 Ohio St. 99; 70 N. Y. 518; 14 Am. Kep. 312; 3 Am. & Eng. Cy. of Law, 698; 15 Id. 1003; Const. Art. VI, sec. 39.
Geo. J. McComas for defendants in error, cited Const. Art. VI, sec. 39; 32 Minn. 543; Cooley Con. Lim. 77; 10 Col. 553, 559; 13 Gratt. 78; 8 Pa. St. 391, 395, 416; 25 W. Va. 428; 11 Ohio St. 99; 8 Ohio St. 285; 28 W. Va. 289.
Holt, President:
The Circuit Court of Cabell county, on petition of J. S. Farr and others, by order entered on the 31st day of July, 1893, directed a certificate of incorporation to be issued of a pait of Goyandotte district as a town by the name of Central City, from which order B. D. Elder and others obtained this writ of error.
In 1872, the organization of many parts of the state into municipal corporations, for the purpose of local self-govern- men had become a matter of frequent and urgent necessity. The framers of the constitution thought that this need in the great majority of cases could be met more efficiently and impartially by a general law than by a great multitude of special enactments; hence section thirty nine of article six of the constitution prescribes that the legislature shall not pass special laws incorporating cities, towns or villages, or amending the charter of any city, town or village, containing a population less than two thousand, but shall provide for the same by general law. Thereupon the legislature enacted chapter forty seven of the Code see Code, p. 421 (Ed. 1891) which provides that any part of any district or districts not included within any incorporated town, village, or city, and containing a resident population of not less than one hundred persons, and if it shall include within its boundaries a territory of not less than one quarter of one square mile in extent, may be incorporated as a city, town, or village, under the provisions of this chapter. It then provides that an accurate survey and map shall be made of the territory; that a. census of the resident population shall be taken; public notice thereof be given that application will be made to the Circuit Court for a certificate of incorporation; and that the question will be, at a named time and place, submitted to the vote...
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